Sure?.We know this is the Americas Pacific Challenge, and the teams are the host nation A side and five more A sides from Argentina, USA, Canada, Fiji and Samoa.It will be played from October 7 to 16 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

argie wrote:Sure?.We know this is the Americas Pacific Challenge, and the teams are the host nation A side and five more A sides from Argentina, USA, Canada, Fiji and Samoa.It will be played from October 7 to 16 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Warpath wrote:yep, got the name wrong, one of the local media did not used the correct name.. damn idiots..

...and apparently changed Argentina to Tonga.

How to grow rugby worldwide?Look at the world ranking in July. Teams ranked 1-10 have to play one team from 11-20 (they don't play in a regular competition) away the next year. 11-20 play 21-30 away and so on. Yes, it really is that simple.

It is disappointing it isn't full test status for Argentina, but they'd risk losing massive ranking points by fielding a second XV and wouldn't want to put out a first XV against teams it is currently a lot stronger than. They probably are happy to have the opportunity to give younger or fringe players exposure to international rugby in a competitive tournament.

The bottom line is that if Brazil and Chile can improve so they can compete with US and Canada second teams in South America, then the North Americans will have to start playing more starters. If North Americans play starters then could start regularly challenging Argentina second XVs in games in North America. It's at that point I'd guess Argentina would play some of their starters and probably accept their matches being full test status. I'd imagine it'd be at least 3-5 years before we get to that stage (although Brazil v US and US v Argentina in the last tournament showed it might happen sooner than I think).

I'm quite optimistic for this tournament long term, particularly if it allows promotion and relegation playoffs (so Brazil and Chile simply must field their strongest sides in any potentially winnable fixtures and cannot get complacent like Italy in 6N).

I just hope sponsorship and the Argentinian RU give it the time it needs to steadily grow. I'm pretty sure Argentina will support it fully as a means to develop the sport in their back garden, make tours from other continents to South America more feasible and help consolidate South American representation in Super Rugby.

Bruce_ma_goose wrote:It is disappointing it isn't full test status for Argentina, but they'd risk losing massive ranking points by fielding a second XV and wouldn't want to put out a first XV against teams it is currently a lot stronger than. They probably are happy to have the opportunity to give younger or fringe players exposure to international rugby in a competitive tournament.

The bottom line is that if Brazil and Chile can improve so they can compete with US and Canada second teams in South America, then the North Americans will have to start playing more starters. If North Americans play starters then could start regularly challenging Argentina second XVs in games in North America. It's at that point I'd guess Argentina would play some of their starters and probably accept their matches being full test status. I'd imagine it'd be at least 3-5 years before we get to that stage (although Brazil v US and US v Argentina in the last tournament showed it might happen sooner than I think).

I'm quite optimistic for this tournament long term, particularly if it allows promotion and relegation playoffs (so Brazil and Chile simply must field their strongest sides in any potentially winnable fixtures and cannot get complacent like Italy in 6N).

I just hope sponsorship and the Argentinian RU give it the time it needs to steadily grow. I'm pretty sure Argentina will support it fully as a means to develop the sport in their back garden, make tours from other continents to South America more feasible and help consolidate South American representation in Super Rugby.

That's the Americas Rugby Championship. This is a pure development tournament.

But his confusion serves to prove the point that announcing these two tournements back to back is confusing. And its made more confusing by the fact that Argentina will send an "A" side to both. But maybe this October, they'll really be sending a "B" side instead.

For the US, I wonder how much we will stick to the EETS and EDTG. You'd think anyone in those groups that didnt make the traveling side for June (and isnt on a big contract overseas) would be asked to get involved in October if they want to get noticed.

This is TIAR's guess at a match day 23. That has to be way off. Firstly, that team would get absolutely destroyed. Secondly, there are a ton of random selections in there from outside the Elite Training Groups who either weren't good enough to play PRO this year or in some cases even make the College All Americans. And way too many college kids or recent grads who still have a way to go in their development. And not a single 7s player? This would be the perfect time to test them out. The team should look more like this:

May be some availability issues for the guys above but there should be some guys with a handful of caps involved both because they need the time and to act as leaders for the new guys. For example, a cap against Russia shouldn't stop Langilangi from getting in this side. He's raw and needs all the high level match time he can get. Same goes for Augspurger who, despite being the first choice 9 for the summer, needs as many reps playing scrumhalf in 15s as possible. Germishuys may have had a few caps in the ARC, but they were against the lower tier of competition and if Mitchell really sees him as a hooker, this is the time to test him there. From the TIAR list, I haven't seen Ruther play, but I could buy that as he had good reviews and we are so thin at lock (Landry may not be available, but I didn't see him on NFL practice squads).

Good list and agree the TIAR one seemed a bit odd. Ruther did well enough in Australia but still wasn't first choice at lock on the tour.

7s is a big gap. Have confirmation now that there will be 7s guys in the squad. Assume the players that stayed in the EETS from the OTC are the ones considering a break from 7s

I also question how many college players can get released from fall Seasons. Some probably will and those with spring Seasons but that will impact it a lot.

My thought is to build a roster start from EETS and EDTG, remove overseas players, remove older guys with plenty of caps and build a squad then fill in gaps. Point of these announced training squad is to simplify things and

That's exactly my thought as well. Goff seems to think it will be somewhere between the style we are thinking and what TIAR thinks. He says the view is to 2020 (does he mean 2019 or does he mean far enough in the future that we aren't looking at this RWC cycle?).

If he and TIAR are right, I'm glad they're looking to the future as some of the ARC teams in the past have been a bit heavy on the now. But the issue I have is that this type of event is far better for developing players who are near Eagle level who need match time at that level (elite players who are raw like Langilangi and Davis, 7s players who need 15s match time especially in the halfbacks) and for identifying players who are near Eagle level than for long term development. The tournament is only 10 days long and if the idea is to get young guys to understand the level they need to be at, wouldn't it be just as productive to bring them into Eagles camp for a week?

Correct, but I was referring to the pairings: Pacific vs Pacific, North America vs North America, and South America vs South America. What's the point of such an international tournament, if some of the matches are not?